Satellite television by region
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Satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
varies in the different regions around the world.


Africa

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n-based
Multichoice MultiChoice is a South African company that operates DStv, a major satellite television service in Sub-Saharan Africa and GOtv, a minor service operating in over 9 countries of this area and Showmax service. MultiChoice was formed out of the sub ...
's
DStv Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...
is the main digital satellite television provider in sub-Saharan Africa, broadcasting principally in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
, but also in
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
and
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
.
Multichoice MultiChoice is a South African company that operates DStv, a major satellite television service in Sub-Saharan Africa and GOtv, a minor service operating in over 9 countries of this area and Showmax service. MultiChoice was formed out of the sub ...
's
DStv Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...
had 6 million paid subscribers on 30 September 2016.
CanalSat Afrique Canal+ Afrique is an African version of Canal+, available mainly in the francophone countries of Central and West Africa, as well as some non-francophone countries such as Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ghana and Cape Verde. The Service is broadcast off t ...
, owned by
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
's
Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...
and Vivendi, is the main provider in
French-speaking French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. Another entrant into the satellite television circuit in Africa is MyTv Africa, a subsidiary of Dubai-based Strong Technologies. The launch of Free2view has made satellite TV available to the masses in Africa. Free2view currently broadcasts MSNBC as its exclusive news channel and is about to roll out additional channels. GTV (Gateway TV) - to differentiate from Ghana Television (GTV)-, a British-based company, became the next contender in sub-saharan Africa providing digital satellite television. But on January 30. 2009, the Board of Directors of Gateway Broadcast Services (GBS) approved plans to liquidate the company which was later shut down. GBS was the operator behind GTV, a popular, if niche Direct to Home (DTH) satellite Pay-TV service present in 22 African markets. The collapse of GBS was sudden for its employees, its customers and those who have long believed that there is mass-market potential in African pay-TV. Star DTV, a Chinese company which launched in 2009 has managed to reach about 800,000 households in October 2011. In 2010, ZAP launched in Angola, providing digital satellite television mainly for
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
speaking countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Satellite television has been far more successful in Africa than cable, primarily because the infrastructure for cable television does not exist and would be expensive to install owing to the living style of most Africans who live in rural areas. Furthermore, maintaining a cable network is expensive due to the need to cover larger and more sparsely populated areas though there are some terrestrial pay-TV and MMDS services.


Nigeria

Traditionally
DStv Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...
had held a large market share in
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
's Satellite television sector but several companies, HiTV, MyTV, Trend TV, ACTV, Consat, Daarsat, Metrodigital, Montage cable network and StarTimes also compete in this sector.


Sudan

Sudan TV, the government-owned national network, is available by satellite as well as broadcast.


America


United States

Currently, there are two primary satellite television providers of subscription based service available to
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
consumers:
DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
, and
Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...
.


Canada

Currently, there are two primary satellite television providers of subscription based service available to
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
consumers:
Bell Satellite TV Bell Satellite TV (french: Bell Télé; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Bell Fibe TV, Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite ...
and
Shaw Direct Shaw Direct is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Shaw Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two communic ...
. The
CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
has refused to license American satellite services, but nonetheless hundreds of thousands (up to a million by some estimates) of Canadians access or have accessed American services — usually these services have to be billed to an American address and are paid for in
U.S. dollars The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
, although some viewers receive American signals through "
pirate decryption Pirate decryption is the decryption, or decoding, of pay TV or pay radio signals without permission from the original broadcaster. The term "pirate" is used in the sense of copyright infringement. The MPAA and other groups which lobby in favour ...
". Whether such activity is
grey market A grey market or dark market (sometimes confused with the similar term " parallel market") is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels that are not authorized by the original manufacturer or trade mark proprietor. Grey market pr ...
or
black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...
is the source of often heated debate between those who would like greater choice and those who argue that the protection of Canadian firms and Canadian
culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
is more important. In October 2004,
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
Judge Danièle Côté ruled Canada's
Radiocommunication Act The ''Radiocommunication Act'' (french: Loi sur la radiocommunication) is an Act of Parliament respecting radiocommunication in Canada. It was enacted in 1985. The ''Radiocommunication Act'' is administered by the Government of Canada's Innovatio ...
to be in direct violation of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part o ...
, in so far as it bans reception of unlicensed foreign television services. The judgment gave the federal government a one-year deadline to remedy this breach of the Constitution. However, this contradicts prior
Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...
decisions and was overturned on appeal. A Supreme Court of Canada decision in the case of Bell ExpressVu v. Richard Rex, made on April 26, 2002, confirms that provisions in the Radiocommunication Act forbid the illegal decoding of satellite television programming. Although there are no official statistics, the use of American satellite services in Canada appears to be declining as of 2004. Some would claim that this is probably due to a combination of increasingly aggressive police enforcement and an unfavourable
exchange rate In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...
between the
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
and U.S. currencies. As the U.S. dollar has been declining as of 2005 versus other international currencies, the decline in DirecTV viewership in Canada may well be related not to a cost difference as much as to the series of smart card swaps which have rendered the first three generations of DirecTV access cards (F, H and HU) all obsolete. Bell underwent a period of phasing out satellite receivers in urban areas, replacing it with
IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...
transmitted over regular telephone lines.


Hispanic America

Hispanic America's main satellite systems are
SKY México The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...
with 3 million subscribers and
Dish México Dish México, S. de R. L. de C.V. is a Mexican-owned company that operates a subscription satellite television service in Mexico nationwide. S. de R. L. de C.V. stands for Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada de Capital Variable, a form of limit ...
with 2.2 million subscribers and
Vrio VRIO is a business analysis framework that forms part of a firm's larger strategic scheme. The basic strategic process that any firm begins with a vision statement, and continues on through objectives, internal & external analysis, strategic choices ...
, which provides service to the rest of the
Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...
, with a total of approximately 1.3 million subscribers.


Chile

There are several satellite providers in Chile. The main ones are listed below: #
DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
#
Movistar TV Movistar TV is a subscription television service operated by Telefónica. Currently, the service is available in Chile, Perú, Colombia, El Salvador, Venezuela and Argentina. In Spain, this service merged with the satellite platform Canal+, re ...
#
Claro TV Claro TV+ is a Latin American operator of Pay television. The service is supplied by Embratel and Claro companies and operates in Star One C4 satellite. Its transmission system is DTH (Direct to Home) in Ku Band, and the channels are encrypted ...
# TuVes HD #
Entel (Chile) Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A. (doing business as Entel-Chile S.A.) is the largest Chilean telecommunications company. The company is known for the high Torre Entel (Entel Tower) that rises above central Santiago and constitutes ...


Brazil

There are about 10 million subscribers of satellite TV in Brazil; the main satellite system is
SKY Brasil SKY Brasil is a company, owned by Vrio, which operates a subscription television service in Brazil. It produces TV content, and owns several TV channels. History SKY Mexico was founded on 25 July 1996, a joint venture between British Sky Broad ...
with approximately 1.4 million subscribers; other satellite TV operators are
Vivo TV Vivo TV is a Brazilian pay television provider, owned by the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica, through its subsidiary in the country, Vivo. It provides digital cable, satellite and IPTV services. Grupo Abril's TVA was founded in 19 ...
,
Claro TV Claro TV+ is a Latin American operator of Pay television. The service is supplied by Embratel and Claro companies and operates in Star One C4 satellite. Its transmission system is DTH (Direct to Home) in Ku Band, and the channels are encrypted ...
and Oi TV. A major problem are pirate receivers (usually using
card sharing Card sharing, also known as control word sharing, is a method of allowing multiple clients or digital television receivers to access a subscription television network with only one valid subscription card. This is achieved by electronically sharin ...
systems to cheat the
conditional access Conditional access (CA) is a term commonly used in relation to software and to digital television systems. Conditional access is that ‘just-in-time’ evaluation to ensure the person who is seeking access to content is authorized to access the c ...
systems) which amount to an unknown quantity of users. The service offered in Brazil includes Digital TV with full Dolby Digital surround support, mts and multiple subtitle options, a first for the Brazilian market. A recent update to Sky's services in Brazil is Sky+ which allows the customer to record a program while watching another one and also Sky HD which currently provides up to 29 high definition channels. Services are however relatively expensive, therefore market penetration is still limited.


Asia


Bangladesh

All privately owned television channels in Bangladesh broadcast via satellite television, and terrestrial television signals are only used by state-owned
Bangladesh Television Bangladesh Television ( bn, বাংলাদেশ টেলিভিশন), commonly known by its acronym BTV ( bn, বিটিভি), is the state-owned television network of Bangladesh. The network was originally established as the East ...
. There is only one satellite providers in Bangladesh, Akash DTH.


India

Over 1340 TV Satellite channels are broadcast in India. This includes channels from the state-owned Doordarshan, News Corporation owned STAR TV, Sony owned Sony Entertainment Television, Sun Network and Zee TV. Major satellite television providers in India are
DD Direct Plus DD Free Dish (previously known as DD Direct Plus) is an Indian free-to-air satellite television provider. DD Free Dish DTH service is owned and operated by Public Service Broadcaster Prasar Bharati. It was launched in December, 2004. In March 2 ...
,
Dish TV Dish, dishes or DISH may refer to: Culinary * Dish (food), something prepared to be eaten * Dishware, plates and bowls for eating, cutting boards, silverware Communications * Dish antenna a type of antenna * Dish Network, a satellite televis ...
,
Airtel digital TV Bharti Telemedia Limited, doing business as Airtel Digital TV, is an Indian direct-broadcast satellite service provider owned and operated by Bharti Airtel. Its satellite service, launched in October 2008, transmits digital satellite televisio ...
,
Reliance Digital TV Independent TV, formerly Reliance Big TV, was an Indian direct to home (DTH) television operator. It was a subsidiary of Reliance Communications till 2018 and later became part of Pantel Technologies & Veecon Media. History Independent TV ori ...
,
Videocon d2h Videocon Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai. The group had 17 manufacturing sites in India and plants in Mainland China, Poland, Italy and Mexico. It was the third largest picture tube manufact ...
,
Sun Direct Sun Direct is an Indian direct broadcast satellite service provider. Sun Direct was launched in December 2007. It transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in India. Sun Direct uses MPEG-4 digital compression, transmittin ...
and
Tata Sky Tata Play (stylised as TΛTΛ PLΛY, formerly TΛTΛ , sky) is an Indian direct broadcast satellite (DTH) service provider using MPEG-4 digital compression technology, transmitting using INSAT-4A and GSAT-10 satellite. Incorporated in 2005; it ...
. Most of them have already started their premium
HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
services. These services are provided by locally built satellites from ISRO such as 5INSAT 4CR, INSAT 4A, INSAT-2E, INSAT-3C and INSAT-3E as well as private satellites such as the Dutch-based SES, Global-owned NSS 6, Thaicom-2 and Telstar 10.


Indonesia

The first satellite television provider in Indonesia, Indovision (currently
MNC Vision MNC Vision (legally PT MNC Sky Vision Tbk, formerly Indovision) is an Indonesian subscription-based direct broadcast satellite (DBS) or ''direct-to-home'' satellite television and radio service initially in Indonesia. Currently owned by PT MNC Vi ...
), was established on 16 January 1994; initially utilizing Palapa B2P satellite. Today there are a bunch of satellite television providers as well as satellite channels, both free-to-air and pay. Satellite television providers, other than MNC Vision, include K-Vision (also owned by MNC Vision), Nex Parabola, and
Transvision Humanity+ (also Humanity Plus; formerly the World Transhumanist Association) is a non-profit international educational organization that advocates the ethical use of technologies and evidence-based science to improve the human condition. This cond ...
. Satellite channels include
IDX Channel The acronym IDX may refer to: * .idx file extension, used by various programs to represent an index of some kind, commonly used by the DirectVobSub add-on for subtitle files * IDX Systems, a software company, portions now owned by GE and athenaheal ...
and
SEA Today SEA Today (abbreviation from Southeast Asia Today) is an Indonesian English-language news and lifestyle television channel targeting Southeast Asian and international audiences. Owned by PT Metra Digital Media (MD Media), a subsidiary of the state- ...
.


Japan

The medium-scale Broadcasting Satellite for Experimental Purposes (BSE) was planned by Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MOPT) and developed by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (
NASDA The , or NASDA, was a Japanese national space agency established on October 1, 1969 under the National Space Development Agency Law only for peaceful purposes. Based on the Space Development Program enacted by the Minister of Education, Culture, ...
) since 1974. After that, the first Japanese experimental broadcasting satellite, called BSE or
Yuri Yuri may refer to: People and fictional characters Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Jap ...
, was launched in 1978.
NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestri ...
started experimental broadcasting of TV program using BS-2a satellite in May 1984. The satellite BS-2a was launched in preparation for the start of full scale 2-channel broadcasts. Broadcasting Satellite BS-2a was the first national DBS (direct broadcasting satellite), transmitting signals directly into the home of TV viewers. Attitude control of the satellite was conducted using the 3 axial method (zero momentum), and design life was 5 years. The TV transponder units are designed to sufficiently amplify transmitted signals to enable reception by small, 40 or 60 cm home-use parabolic
antennas In radio engineering, an antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies a ...
. The satellite was equipped with 3 TV transponders (including reserve units). However, one transponder malfunctioned 2 months after launch (March 23, 1984) and a second transponder malfunctioned 3 months after launch (May 3, 1984). So, the scheduled satellite broadcasting had to be hastily adjusted to test broadcasting on a single channel. Later, NHK started regular service (
NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
) and experimental
HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
broadcasting using BS-2b in June 1989. Some Japanese producers of home electronic consumer devices began to deliver TV sets,
VCR A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording. ...
s and even home acoustic systems equipped by built-in satellite tuners or receivers. Such electronic goods had a specific '' BS'' logo. In April 1991, Japanese company JSB started pay TV service while BS-3 communication satellite was in use. In 1996 total number of households that receive satellite broadcasting exceeded 10 million. The modern two satellite systems in use in Japan are BSAT and JCSAT; the modern WOWOW Broadcasting Satellite digital service uses BSAT satellites, while other system of digital TV broadcasting
SKY PerfecTV! is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service that provides satellite television, audio programming and interactive television services to households in Japan, owned by parent company SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation The SKY Perfect JSAT Group is ...
uses JCSAT satellites.


Kazakhstan

The first satellite TV channel in
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, CaspioNet, was launched by the Khabar news agency in 2002.


Malaysia

Malaysia's sole satellite television operator, Measat Broadcast Network Systems (a subsidiary of
Astro All Asia Networks plc Astro Malaysia Holdings () is a Malaysian media and entertainment holding company that began as a paid digital satellite radio and television service, Astro. The company is owned by Astro Holdings Sendirian Berhad, which also owns Astro Oversea ...
) launched
Astro Astro may refer to: Entertainment and media * Astro (South Korean band), a South Korean boy band * Astro (UB40) (1957–2021), member of the British reggae band UB40 * Astro (Chilean band), a Chilean indie rock band * Astro (Japanese band), ...
in 1996. It currently holds exclusive rights from the Malaysian government to offer satellite television broadcasting services in the country through the year 2017.


Mongolia

The Naran station (aka Orbit Station) is first satellite television in Mongolia. In 1991, Naran Station broadcast one channel, which is MNB. In 2005, Naran station extended the channel list up to 4 FTA channels. In 2010 they stopped television broadcast. Government has decided to allow private company does the service in 2008.
DDishTV DDISHTV ( mn, ДДэшТВ ХХК) is a Mongolian Direct-to-home television service provider company led by Bars Ganbold ( CEO). A member of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, DDISHTV was established in 2008 to carry out Mongolian government' ...
broadcast 18 channels, including 15 local channels and 3 foreign channels since 2008.
DDishTV LLC DDISHTV ( mn, ДДэшТВ ХХК) is a Mongolian Direct-to-home television service provider company led by Bars Ganbold ( CEO). A member of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, DDISHTV was established in 2008 to carry out Mongolian government's ...
is the satellite television operator in Mongolia.


Pakistan

In the recent years, there has been a lot of investment in television industry in
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. There are more than 34 Satellite channels operating directly inside Pakistan and about 10 operating their broadcasting from
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
,
Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
,
Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
and UK.


Philippines

Satellite television in the Philippines began in 2001 when the first pay DTH service
Dream Satellite TV Dream Satellite TV was the first all-digital Direct-To-Home (DTH) television broadcasting service via satellite in the Philippines. Broadcasting from the Dream Broadcast Center located at the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga. Content is rec ...
was launched. In 2009, both
Cignal Cignal (pronounced as ''signal'') is a Philippine satellite television and IPTV provider, owned by Cignal TV Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the MediaQuest Holdings Inc. under the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund. Cignal's prepaid electronic ...
and
G Sat G-Sat (''Global Satellite'') is a subscription-based direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service commercially available in the Philippines. G-Sat is owned by Global Satellite Technology Services (GSTS), registered in the Philippines with t ...
were launched on the NSS 11 broadcasting satellite. Later, these satellite TV providers began offering HD. However, G Sat HD has different channels than Cignal HD. Later in 2012, Cignal began to move their programming to SES-7 for similar coverage. On December 31, 2017, Dream Satellite TV ceased its direct-to-home pay satellite TV service after 16 years, due to bankruptcy and stiff competition from satellite-based pay TV services at the time prior to its bankruptcy (e.g. Cignal, G Sat and the now-defunct Sky Direct). The transponder of the now-defunct Dream Satellite TV that was used on Koreasat 7 would later be used for
SatLite Cignal TV, Inc. (formerly known as GV Broadcasting System), also known by its legal trading name Mediascape Inc., is a Filipino media and telecommunications firm in the Philippines. A wholly owned subsidiary of the media conglomerate MediaQues ...
on January 12, 2018, a digital prepaid pay TV service that's owned by Cignal TV, Inc. On June 30, 2020,
Sky Direct Sky Direct was a direct-broadcast satellite subscription television service in the Philippines owned and operated by Sky, a subsidiary of ABS-CBN. Sky Cable had been eyeing for a DBS service and considered on acquiring Dream Satellite TV from Ant ...
ceased its operations after an alias cease-and-desist order (ACDO) was issued by the
National Telecommunications Commission The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC; fil, Pambansang Komisyon sa Telekomunikasyon) is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology responsible for the supervision, adjudication and control over ...
(NTC) and Solicitor General
Jose Calida Jose Callangan Calida (born July 7, 1950) is a Filipino lawyer. He previously served as Undersecretary of Justice under the Arroyo administration, as executive director of the Dangerous Drugs Board, as Solicitor General of the Philippines under ...
regarding the expiration of ABS-CBN's legislative franchise. These are the satellite-based pay TV providers that are currently operating in the Philippines: *
Cignal Cignal (pronounced as ''signal'') is a Philippine satellite television and IPTV provider, owned by Cignal TV Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the MediaQuest Holdings Inc. under the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund. Cignal's prepaid electronic ...
(owned by Cignal TV, Inc., also known as Mediascape) *
G Sat G-Sat (''Global Satellite'') is a subscription-based direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service commercially available in the Philippines. G-Sat is owned by Global Satellite Technology Services (GSTS), registered in the Philippines with t ...
(owned by Global Satellite Technology Services) *
SatLite Cignal TV, Inc. (formerly known as GV Broadcasting System), also known by its legal trading name Mediascape Inc., is a Filipino media and telecommunications firm in the Philippines. A wholly owned subsidiary of the media conglomerate MediaQues ...
(owned by Cignal TV, Inc., also known as Mediascape)


Sri Lanka

Satellite TV in Sri Lanka began in 2005 as CBNsat. However, it was later acquired by the island's mobile GSM Operator, Dialog and was relaunched as
Dialog TV Dialog TV (DTV) is a direct broadcast satellite pay TV service provider based in Sri Lanka. A fully owned subsidiary of Dialog Axiata PLC, Dialog TV was launched in July 2005 under the name "CBNsat". It was later renamed to Dialog TV in Februa ...
. In 2015 Dish TV India started their operations in Sri Lanka in a joint venture with Satnet (Pvt) Ltd, as Dish TV Lanka which is now the 2nd largest DTH Operator in the island.


Thailand

TrueVisions TrueVisions is a cable and satellite television operator in Thailand. TrueVisions is owned by the True Corporation. Until February 2007, it was called the United Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), or UBC-True. History International Broadcasting C ...
is the leading pay TV service of Thailand which operate cable TV in
Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
and satellite TV across the country. TrueVisions is owned by True Corporation. VIet Nam sat is just launched in 4/2008 and
GMM Grammy GMM Grammy Public Company Limited ( th, จีเอ็มเอ็ม แกรมมี่ or G"MM' Grammy) is the largest media conglomerate entertainment company in Thailand. Grammy top artists include Bird Thongchai, Silly Fools, Loso, Tai ...
is the second pay TV service of Thailand.


Oceania


Australia

Satellite television in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
has proven to be a far more feasible option than cable television, due to the vast distances between population centres. The first service to come online in Australia was
Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...
, which was later taken over by Cable Television giant
Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...
, which now operates both cable and satellite services to all state capital cities (except Darwin and Hobart) and the whole of Western Australia. Its main metropolitan rival was
Optus Vision Optus Television is the cable television division of Australian telecommunications company Optus. History Its immediate predecessor was Optus Vision, a joint venture between Optus and Continental Cablevision, with small shareholdings by media ...
, while rural areas are served by
Austar Austar was an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity was subscription television but it has also been involved with internet access and mobile phones. It was founded in 1995 under the name Community Entertainment Telev ...
, both of which just rebroadcast Foxtel as of 2005. In 2006 SelecTV began operating, aiming at providing comparatively low cost packages and catering to specialised market segments. In 2010, SelecTV ceased operation and handed over all of their English-language content customers to
Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...
.


New Zealand

In
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
,
SKY Network Television Sky Network Television Limited, more commonly known as Sky, is a New Zealand broadcasting company that provides pay television services via satellite television, satellite, media streaming services and broadband internet services. It is also a ...
offers multichannel digital satellite TV, and once offered non-digital terrestrial
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
service which was shut down progressively during the first half of 2010. The newly released
Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...
service is also available on the Optus D1 satellite, as well as a High Definition digital terrestrial service.


Europe


Continental Western Europe

In Europe, DBS satellite services are found mainly on
SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...
Astra and
Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Eutelsat's satellit ...
Hotbird Hot Bird (also styled HOTBIRD) is a group of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 °E over the equator ( orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Asia, Europe, North Africa, Americas and the Middle East. Only digital ra ...
fleets.
Sky Group Sky Group Limited is a British media conglomerate, media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a division of Comcast, and headquartered in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ital ...
, owned by
Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
, operates with his subsidiaries in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, in the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
, in
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, in Germany, in Austria and in
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
Canal Digitaal CanalDigitaal is a provider of digital television via satellite for the Dutch market, using the Astra satellites at 23.5° east. Initially customers were mainly Dutch citizens in the countryside who did not have cable access. But in the mea ...
and UPC are the main providers in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and
Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...
, respectively.
Vivendi Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...
's owned
Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...
is the main provider in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. The overall market share of DBS satellite services in 2004 was 21.4% of all TV homes, however this highly varies from country to country. For example, in Germany, with many
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
TV-stations, DBS market share is almost 40%, and in Belgium and the Netherlands, it's only about 7%, due to the widespread cable networks with exclusive content. From about Lyon south through France and all of Spain Portugal and Morocco there are many English Language TV channels on Arabsat and Nilesat. These include BBC News, MBC, Fox Movies, many sport channels from the Near East and Egypt. A 90 cm dish is enough but twist the LNB slightly clockwise as you go south. Try first Arabsat 26 degrees east, a bit higher that Astra 2. 11919 H should get you MBC Action. Nilesat is a bit to the right and has mostly the same channels.


Portugal

In
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, satellite television is received mostly through the
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
tuning of
Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Eutelsat's satellit ...
Hot Bird Hot Bird (also styled HOTBIRD) is a group of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 °E over the equator ( orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Asia, Europe, North Africa, Americas and the Middle East. Only digital r ...
satellites through private
parabolic antenna A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or pa ...
s.


Spain

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
's company
Hispasat Hispasat is the operating company for a number of Spanish communications satellites that cover the Americas, Europe and North Africa from orbital positions 30.0° West and 61.0° West. It was formed in 1989 and its activities include provision ...
operates satellites for free channels and several payment platforms. However, the most common operator
Movistar+ Movistar Plus+ (formerly Movistar+) is the trade name of the subscription platform for digital television owned by Telefónica, which operates in Spain. The service is distributed via optical fiber and ADSL and as well as with satellites such as ...
, broadcast via Astra and lately push their clients to use their own fiber internet network, if it's available.


United Kingdom and Ireland

The first commercial DBS service in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, Sky Television, was launched in 1989 and used the newly launched
SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...
Astra 1A Astra 1A was the first satellite launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites), launched in December 1988. During its early days, it was often referred to as the Astra Satellite, as SES only operated one satellite original ...
satellite, providing 4 analogue TV channels. The channels and subsequent
VideoCrypt VideoCrypt is a cryptographic, smartcard-based conditional access television encryption system that scrambles analogue pay-TV signals. It was introduced in 1989 by News Datacom and was used initially by Sky TV and subsequently by several other broa ...
video encryption system used the existing
PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
broadcast standard. This gave Sky a distinct advantage over the winner of the UK state DBS licence, BSB. In the following year, after many delays, BSB was launched, broadcasting five channels (
Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...
,
Galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...
,
The Movie Channel The Movie Channel (TMC) is an American premium television network owned by Showtime Networks, a subsidiary of Paramount Global operated through its Media Networks unit. The network's programming mainly features first-run theatrically released ...
, The Power Station and
The Sports Channel Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
) in
D-MAC Among the family of MAC or Multiplexed Analogue Components systems for television broadcasting, D-MAC is a reduced bandwidth variant designed for transmission down cable. * The data is Bipolar encoding, duobinary coded with a data burst rate of ...
format and using the EuroCypher video encryption system which was based heavily on the General Instruments VideoCipher system used in the US. While the BSB's broadcast standard and system was technologically more advanced than the PAL based Sky system and one of the main selling points of the BSB offering was the Squarial, an expensive flat plate antenna and LNB. Sky's system used conventional cheap dish and LNB technology. The BSB system used an integrated receiver / decoder whereas the Sky system had standalone decoders and integrated receiver decoders. This allowed Sky to market directly to an audience that already had satellite TV systems. The competition between the two companies was fierce and bidding wars over the UK rights to movies. Sky kept costs to a bare minimum, operating from an industrial park in
Isleworth Isleworth ( ) is a town located within the London Borough of Hounslow in West London, England. It lies immediately east of the town of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane, London, River Crane. Isleworth's or ...
in West London. BSB had expensive offices in London (
Marco Polo House Marco Polo House (originally stylised as "Marcopolo") was a large marble-effect, glass-clad office building and TV studio at 346 Queenstown Road, facing Battersea Park in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built in 1987–1988 and complete ...
). The two services subsequently merged to form British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) though the new BSkyB was really Sky. The technologically more advanced BSB D-MAC/EuroCypher system was gradually replaced with Sky's
VideoCrypt VideoCrypt is a cryptographic, smartcard-based conditional access television encryption system that scrambles analogue pay-TV signals. It was introduced in 1989 by News Datacom and was used initially by Sky TV and subsequently by several other broa ...
video encryption system. In 1994 17% of the group was floated on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
(with ADRs listed on the
New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...
), and
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
's News Corporation owns a 35% stake. By 1999, following the launch of several more satellites (at 19.2°E by SES), the number of channels had increased to around 60 and BSkyB launched the first subscription-based digital television platform in the UK, offering a range of 300 channels broadcast from the
SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...
Astra satellites at 28.2°E under the brand name Sky Digital. BSkyB's analogue service was discontinued on 31 December 2001 and all customers have migrated to Sky Digital. In May 2008, a free-to-air satellite service from the BBC and ITV was launched under the brand name
Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...
, carrying a variety of channels, including some content in HD formats.
Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
, the largest cable TV provider in the US, outbid
21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, f ...
and its backer,
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, on September 22, 2018, in an auction for control of
Sky UK Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...
. Its shareholders have until October 11, 2018, to accept or reject the offer.


Russian Federation

The first Soviet communication satellite, called Molniya (Молния, or "Lightning"), was launched in 1965. By November 1967, the national system of satellite television, called Orbita, was deployed. The Communist party considered propaganda as the very important task, and the only allowed (later two) TV channel of the central government had to be delivered to regions on a huge territory, and, if possible, abroad. The system consisted of three highly
elliptical Elliptical may mean: * having the shape of an ellipse, or more broadly, any oval shape ** in botany, having an elliptic leaf shape ** of aircraft wings, having an elliptical planform * characterised by ellipsis (the omission of words), or by conc ...
Molniya satellites, Moscow-based ground uplink facilities and about 20 downlink stations, located in cities and towns of remote regions of
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
and the Far East. Each station had a 12-meter receiving
parabolic antenna A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or pa ...
and transmitters for re-broadcasting TV signal to local householders. However, a large part of Soviet central regions were still not covered by
transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...
of Molniya satellites. By 1976, Soviet engineers developed a relatively simple and inexpensive system of satellite television (especially for Central and Northern Siberia). It included
geostationary satellites A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitude ...
called Ekran equipped with powerful 300 W
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
transponders, a broadcasting uplink station and various simple receiving stations located in various towns and villages of Siberian region. The typical receiving station, also called ''Ekran'', represented itself as a home-use
analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
receiver equipped with simple Yagi-Uda antenna. Later, Ekran satellites were replaced by more advanced Ekran-M series satellites. In 1979 Soviet engineers developed ''Moskva'' (or Moscow) system of broadcasting and delivering of TV signal via satellites. New type of geostationary communication satellites, called
Gorizont Gorizont (russian: Горизонт, ''Horizon''), GRAU index 11F662, is a series of 35 Russian, previously Soviet, geosynchronous communications satellites launched between 1978 and 2000. The programme was started in order to develop a satelli ...
, were launched. They were equipped by powerful on-board transponders, so the size of receiving parabolic antennas of downlink stations was reduced to 4 and 2.5 meters (in comparison of early 12-meter dishes of standard orbital downlink stations). By 1989 an improved version of ''Moskva'' system of satellite television has been called ''Moskva Global'naya'' (or Moscow Global). The system included a few
geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitude ...
Gorizont and Express type of communication satellites. TV signal from Moscow Global's satellites could be received in any country of planet except Canada and North-West of the US. Modern Russian satellite broadcasting services based on powerful geostationary buses such as Gals,
Ekspress Ekspress (russian: Экспресс meaning Express), is a series of geostationary communications satellites owned by Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC). The first satellite of this kind was launched on 13 October 1994. The satellit ...
, USP and
Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Eutelsat's satellit ...
which provide a large quantity of free-to-air television channels to millions of householders.
Pay-TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...
is growing in popularity amongst Russian TV viewers. The
NTV Russia NTV (Cyrillic: НТВ) is a Russian free-to-air television channel that was launched as a subsidiary of Vladimir Gusinsky's company . Since 14 April 2001 Gazprom Media controls the network. NTV has no official meaning according to Igor Malashen ...
news company, owned by
Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...
, broadcasts the
NTV Plus NTV Plus (russian: НТВ Плюс) is the brand name for the Russian digital satellite television service from NTV Russia, NTV, transmitted from Eutelsat's W series (satellites), W4 satellite at 36.0°E and from Bonum 1 at 56.0°E. Previously a ...
package to 560,000 households, reaching over 1.5 million viewers.
Tricolor TV Tricolor TV (russian: Триколор ТВ) is Russia's largest direct-to-home provider based in Saint-Petersburg and has broadcast two hundred TV channels in the European part of Russia and Siberia since 2005. As of October 2014, Tricolor TV ...
(Russian: Триколор ТВ) the biggest satellite television operator. It broadcasts a pack of TV channels in the European part of Russia and most of Siberian, Ural and Far East regions. Broadcasting in the European part has been held since December 2005 from esv Eutelsat W4. Broadcasting in the Eastern regions began in December 2007. The principal difference between Tricolor TV and other Russian satellite TV operators is a pack of free channels broadcasts by Tricolor TV. There are 12 federal channels including "Pervy", "Rossiya", "NTV", "STS", "Bibigon" and others in the free "Basic" pack. Except these, there are 19 more TV channels for the whole family. The budget pack of satellite channels turned to be very popular among Russian viewers. The number of Tricolor TV's subscribers is the largest in Russia. In December 2009, the audience of Tricolor TV reached 6,000,000 households.


Turkey

Turkey's first satellite television channel called
TRT The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish : ) is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio i ...
launched
Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...
satellite in 1987. On March 1, 1989, Turkey's first private TV channel
Star TV Star TV may refer to: * E! (Canadian TV channel) (formerly Star!), a Canadian entertainment news channel * Las Estrellas (Spanish for The Stars), the Mexican television network * Estrella TV (Spanish for Star TV), the American Spanish-language net ...
(previous Magic Box or Star1) test transmission Eutelsat I F-5 satellite in Germany. In 1990, Star1 channel terrestrial TV transmitter with receive satellite on Turkey. In 1994,
Türksat 1B Turksat 1B was a Turkish communications satellite as part of a project to form an instant network with two geosynchronous satellites that is supervised by the companies Türksat A.Ş. in Turkey and Aérospatiale of France. Türksat 1B was launch ...
first television channel such as Kent Medya, Kanal E, CTV, BTV, Dokuz TV, KTV, HBB, Süper Kanal, Best TV, Medya Teknik Servisler, UBA, Yavuz RTV, Özdil TV or MNG TV. In 1995,
Eutelsat Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues. Eutelsat's satellit ...
satellite transmitted four Turkish TV channel TRT int, atv,
TGRT Fox is one of the leading free to air TV networks broadcasting in Turkey. Since July 2012, Fox TV broadcasts in 16:9. History The channel was originally TGRT (acronym in turkish as: 'Türkiye Gazetesi Radyo Televizyonu'; ''Turkey Newspaper Radi ...
or Interstar. In 1996, Turkey's first digital satellite television channel is Meltem TV.
Türksat 1C Türksat 1C was a Turkish communications satellite as part of a project to form an instant network with two geosynchronous satellites that is supervised by the companies Türksat A.Ş. in Turkey and Aérospatiale of France. Türksat 1C was launc ...
first television channel such as TRT 1, TRT 2/GAP, TRT 3, TRT 4, TRT int, TRT int-Avrasya, atv, atv int, Kanal D, Euro D, Show TV, Kanal 6, Kanal 7, Samanyolu TV, HBB, Cine5, Maxi TV / Supersport TV, Flash TV, Prima TV, Genç TV, Eko TV, Number One TV, TV1 Azerbaijan, Sun TV, Mesaj TV, Meltem TV, Discovery Channel Turkey, Nickelodeon Turkey, Süper TV or Cumhuriyet TV. In 2018, Turkey's watches commonly satellite % 80 penetration. Analogue satellite broadcasting has been discontinued TRT since February 2006. Turkey's satellite TV is majority Türksat satellite over 300+
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
television or radio channel.


Nordic countries

The first satellite service specifically set to the Nordic region was
TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...
which launched in 1987. With the launch of
Astra 1A Astra 1A was the first satellite launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites), launched in December 1988. During its early days, it was often referred to as the Astra Satellite, as SES only operated one satellite original ...
, getting the TV3 channel got easier. The first Nordic-specific satellite,
Tele-X Tele-X was the first communications satellite serving the Nordic countries. It was launched with an Ariane 2 launch vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana, on 2 April 1989. On 16 January 1998, its fuel was exhausted and it was moved into graveyard o ...
, was launched in 1989. The services directed at Scandinavia were then scattered among several satellites. In 1993, the former BSB satellites were bought by a Swedish and a Norwegian company, respectively. These two satellites were renamed Thor 1 and
Sirius 1 Sirius Systems Technology was a personal computer manufacturer in Scotts Valley, California. It was founded in 1980 by Chuck Peddle and Chris Fish, formerly of MOS Technology and capitalized by Walter Kidde Inc. In late 1982 Sirius acquired Victo ...
, moved to new positions and started broadcasting services intended for people in the Nordic region. With the launch of additional Thor and Sirius satellites later in the 1990s, Astra and other satellites were abandoned by the Nordic services with almost all Nordic satellite television migrating to the Sirius and Thor satellites. Initially the basic channels were free-to-air. This caused several rights problems since viewers throughout Europe were able to see very much acquired English language programming as well as sports for free on the Nordic channels, although the channels only held broadcasting rights for specific countries. One way of avoiding that was to switch from PAL to the
D2-MAC D2-MAC is a satellite television transmission standard, a member of Multiplexed Analogue Components family. It was created to solve D-MAC's bandwidth problem on European cable systems. * D2-MAC uses half the data rate of D-MAC * D2-MAC has a re ...
standard, hardly used anywhere outside the Nordic region. An unencrypted channel could still be seen in all the Nordic satellite homes, so eventually all channels went encrypted (several of them only being available in one country). There are two competing satellite services:
Canal Digital Canal Digital was a Nordic pay TV and internet service provider in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland that was founded in March 1997 as a joint venture between the French pay TV company Canal+ and the Norwegian telecommunications operator Te ...
(Norwegian
Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, ...
) and
Viasat Viasat may refer to: *Viasat (American company) (founded 1986) * Viasat (Nordic television service) (founded 1991) * Danish 1st Division, officially Viasat Divisionen, second-highest football league in Denmark * Viasat Cup, 2006 Danish football to ...
(
Kinnevik Kinnevik AB () is a Sweden, Swedish investment company that was founded in 1936 by the Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn families. Kinnevik is an active and long-term owner investing primarily in digital consumer businesses. Current CEO, Georgi G ...
). Canal Digital launched in 1997 and was digital from the start, broadcasting from Thor. Kinnevik had been operating an analogue subscription service since the late 1980s, but waited until the year 2000 before launching a digital service. All analogue services from Thor and Sirius will have ceased in 2006, when the three remaining Danish channels go digital-only. The competition between Viasat and Canal Digital has caused some homes in Scandinavia to have to buy two set-top boxes and have two subscriptions to get the full range of channels. Viasat doesn't provide their own channels (TV3, TV3+, ZTV, TV1000 and the Viasat-branded channels) on the Canal Digital platform. Canal Digital does however have exclusive distribution of channels from
SBS Broadcasting SBS Broadcasting Group (SBS), formerly Scandinavian Broadcasting Systems, was a European multinational media group, operating commercial television, premium pay channels, radio stations and related print businesses in Northern, Western and Cen ...
,
Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...
,
TV2 Denmark TV 2 (''TV to'') is a Danish government-owned broadcast and subscription television station in Denmark based in Odense, Funen. History Since 1949, Danmarks Radio had been the sole provider of television in Denmark. Wanting to end the monopoly, ...
and
Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...
; for several years the Swedish SVT and
TV4 TV4 or TV 4 may refer to: *TV4 (Poland), a private Polish television station *TV4 (Sweden), a Swedish television network **TV4 Group, owners of the Swedish television station *South African Broadcasting Corporation TV4, a channel operated by the st ...
channels were also exclusive to Canal Digital.


Middle East and North Africa

The
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
has a high penetration of homes receiving TV channels via DTH satellite. One of the pioneers of free-to-air digital satellite television is considered to be MBC, which began broadcasting in C band through
Arabsat The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (often abbreviated as Arabsat) is a communications satellite operator in the Arab World, headquartered in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arabsat was created to deliver satellite-based, public and ...
and is the first network in the world to offer a free-to-air Western based English language movie channel to the Middle East audience via its spinoff channel MBC 2. Its direct rival is considered to be
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
, UAE based
Dubai One Dubai One (formerly known as Ch33 and then One TV) is a Pan Arab English language entertainment television channel, owned by Dubai Media Incorporated. It was launched on 14 May 1994, and is currently managed by Sarah al Jarman. It airs a mix o ...
, earlier called Ch33 then One TV, which was the first channel in the Middle East and North Africa to provide English language general entertainment programing for both Arabs and the expatriate community. Nourmina Channel is the first satellite channel owned by a Jordanian national of the private sector, which broadcasts on Nile Sat reluctantly 12303H, which covers all the Arab countries, Africa and most parts of Europe - The first digital DTH pay-TV network to provide Indian Entertainment was Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network broadcasting via
Eurobird 2 Eurobird was a series of satellites owned and operated by Eutelsat. The Eurobird satellites provided broadcasting and telecommunication services primarily to the Western and Central European region from orbital positions of 9, 25.5 and 33 degrees ...
(Ku band).
Arab Radio and Television Network Arab Radio and Television Network (acronym: ART) is an Arabic-language television network characterized by its multitude of channels. It is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. History and profile ART was founded in October 15, 1993 by Saleh Abdullah ...
(ART) is an Arabic-language television network characterized by its multitude of channels. It is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Founded in 1993.
Showtime Arabia Showtime Arabia was Showtime Networks' pay television service in the Middle East and North Africa. It was a joint venture between Kuwaiti holding company KIPCO (79% stake) and American media firm Viacom Inc. (21% stake). The company was incorpo ...
Founded in 1993, a joint venture between
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
(21% stake) and
KIPCO Kuwait Projects Company (Holding), known as KIPCO, is an investment holding company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with consolidated assets of US$34.2 billion as of 31 December 2018. The group has significant ownership interest ...
(79% stake) started broadcasting.
beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...
is a popular sports channel launched in November 2003 as Al Jazeera Sport,
beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...
also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Arab Middle East for the most important sporting events. In a year 2009 advertise incorporation Between
Orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...
and
Showtime Arabia Showtime Arabia was Showtime Networks' pay television service in the Middle East and North Africa. It was a joint venture between Kuwaiti holding company KIPCO (79% stake) and American media firm Viacom Inc. (21% stake). The company was incorpo ...
to become under the name OSN. In the same year rise
beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...
buying
ART Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
sport channels which it had owned the rights
fifa world cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
. The news sparked uproar in the Arab countries,
ART Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
has sold broadcast channels remained to OSN, to announce the death of
ART Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
Network.


Israel

In
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, the satellite television provider
yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talente ...
was founded in 2000. It broadcasts multichannel TV and VOD services via satellites
Amos-3 AMOS-3, also known as AMOS-60, is an Israeli communications satellite operated by Spacecom Satellite Communications. History Spacecom Satellite Communications has signed an agreement in September 2005 with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI ...
and Amos-7. It also offers DVR capabilities (similar in function to the
TiVo TiVo ( ) is a digital video recorder (DVR) developed and marketed by Xperi (previously by TiVo Corporation and TiVo Inc.) and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose fea ...
) and 4K support.


References

{{Reflist, 2 Satellite television